Real Rain

My dad always used to tell me about listening to the rain at night when he lived in Guyana. Tropical rain hitting the roof makes a sound like none other... it fills the room before you even notice that the streets are beginning to flood outside. At night it is especially nice... unless of course you have the misfortune of a leaky ceiling... also, unpaved streets turn into mud slicks. But as I experienced in Cape Coast, and had stains to prove it for about a week... squelching your feet in the red mud is pretty darn fun. And YES you did read correctly, my feet were stained with mud for days! Pretty great I know.

So it just started raining here... and I can't help but miss Halifax just a bit! Although, at least here, since the rainy season is officially over, I know it won't rain all day/week/month, like it would in Hali... I am sure by the afternoon it will have passed.

In the last few days I have had a realization concerning Ghanaian traffic lights, or lack thereof. Don't get me wrong, there ARE traffic lights, they are just far and few between, sort of like the street lamps. In major intersections they exist, but in the morning, when traffic is utter mayhem there are not enough. To overcome this challenge (don't ask why it took me THIS long to realize what was happening, ahaha), they use policeman like lights. Okay, I know we do this too in NA when the lights go out... but these police officers stand at the junctions EVERY day. And I am not talking about a mere one or two major junctions without lights... they are everywhere! Anyway, a small tidbit into the challenges with lack of infrastructure in Ghana.

Oh, see! In mere minutes the rain has passed. Excellent.

I really can't believe it is almost the end of the month. I imagine it is getting rather cold in Canada, (shame that, ahaha) the school has lost it's initial "ooh this is new again" charm. Time certainly does fly as you get older, wouldn't you say Dad? Ahaha... started with a shout out, had to end that way too!

Lastly, would those of you who insist on leaving comments like: flying spiders DO exist (info I could have gone without), at least do me the favour of identifying yourself? Making fun of me is far more effective when I know who you are!

Things I'm grateful for: Spiders can't jump

Or fly for that matter.

I think this is why cockroaches are so damn scary, at any moment they could fly right at you. On the other hand, this spider on my wall next to my desk poses little threat. It does keep moving around in circles, odd I know, but it won't jump at me... this makes it much less scary.

I am also grateful for geckos, lizards etc. They eat spiders. I love that. Actually that might be a bit of an overstatement. I recently SAW one eating a spider, yeah, not AS pleasant as it sounds. Still, I am not opposed to the one that lives in our shower (who has yet to be named), because in theory, he will eat the massive spider I saw the other day. Of course in reality, I am fairly certain spider was twice the size of the gecko, so perhaps he won't be the spider-eating machine I want him to be. It's okay, he's kind of cute, so he can stay.

My friend Stu has informed me that I wouldn't last for a second in Indonesia (where he is currently teaching/pretending to be a rock star) as his girlfriend's home has a variety of my least favourite creatures. Just when I was beginning to feel rather proud of myself for adapting, or, well trying to adapt.

I have begun to get rather overwhelmed by the amount of fumes I am exposed to on a daily basis here... mosquito spray, Lindsay's hardcore - for use by veterinarians only - flea spray (we have turned this into our multi-purpose bug killing spray), cigarette smoke, and exhuast. I think we take for granted how clean cities are in the 'developed world' (for lack of a better term). I am still amused when people say: "Toronto, what a CLEAN city!" I mean Edmonton is clean, but Toronto...? I guess it is all relative right? I could maybe learn to deal with the massive amounts of garbage everywhere, although after it rains, it is pretty gross, but the fumes are starting to get to me. My eyes are ALWAYS bright red, and the air is just so thick. I recently heard from my friend Andrea who is traveling in India. She just arrived in Delhi, and her description of the city sounded exactly like Accra, granted on a smaller scale... [not that Accra is small by any means, but DELHI, yeah, you just can't compete]

In other news, I made friends with a cab driver this morning. He told me I looked 18. I guess certain things are universal, ahaha... laugh it up folks. He drove me through this part of Accra I'd never seen before, called New Town. It is Muslim and looks exactly the same as any other part of Accra. The only reason I clued in (before he said something), was because names of shops had references to Islam instead of Christianity. I'll have to post some pictures of this to give you a better idea of what I am talking about, but briefly, shops tend to have a religious reference - pretty much ALL shops. They include things like: "God is Great," "God's Will Beauty Shop," etc, etc.

Today is of course Thursday, and after several weeks of coming close to dead last in the quiz, we are determined to change things up. I personally am beginning to lose momentum, which is entirely understandable as last week's questions were plain ridiculous. I think perhaps aiming for the top ten is a reasonable goal...

I don't have much else to report. Saturday is a big day because I am getting my hair done in corn rows... could go either way though, so I am crossing my fingers.

With that I think I will sign off. Have an enjoyable Thursday wherever you are in the world!

Cereal sans electricity...

I am sure I have mentioned this in a prior email, but we are on a schedule for power cuts. I am told this is because we (actually the Ghanaian government) is exporting electricity to Togo... go figure. Essentially this leaves us with no power every three days, and it rotates between evening and daytime outages. This is not a huge deal, especially because we know when we'll be without (generally speaking), so we don't buy milk, or make sure we have batteries in our flashlights, and we plan to be out during the evening, because sitting/standing at home in the dark is less than appealing. Last night though, was one of those occasions when the power goes out randomly, not following the aforementioned schedule... the visual is: me and Lindsay eating cereal (yes for dinner) in the pitch dark. This complimented with a loud series of yells and groans from outside on the street (and rightly so... when the power goes out, it is DARK). After scrounging around for a few minutes to locate something to light up the room, the power came back on, which was met with resounding cheers and more yelling... quite the event. It did go off again, which made us give up and leave, hoping that it was just our street and not affecting the rest of Osu.

In other news, it looks like I will be having a bit of a vacation (understatement of the year)...

I found out my cousin is getting married in December, but early December, so I wasn't entirely sure if I would make it (to the UK), seeing as I wanted to spend my break there, but asking for 4 weeks off on your second week of work is less than ideal. In any case, it seems to have worked out... I am just waiting on my parents to wake up and confirm with me what day I have to be in the UK. I'll be kicking around for a month between London and Northampton. I am definitely looking forward to it, as I will see loads of family, and honestly, the 2 and a half days at home before coming here didn't really cut it.

This weekend we stayed in Accra, which was nice and relaxing... the plan is to travel every second weekend, but based on the Cape Coast adventure, we'll need recovery time after each trip. On Saturday we went to Makola Market for the second time... almost felt like a pro, ALMOST. It was definitely less daunting than the first time, and I am pretty sure less people were grabbing at us and commenting, which always makes things that much easier. I bought a few things: a thermos for my disgusting Nescafe (1.50 USD), some nice tweed-esque fabric for some pants (5USD), some batteries (0.50 USD). All in all, very productive. On Sunday we spent the day lounging in the sun at an ever popular ex-pat hang out, the Golden Tulip Hotel. I am now about 15 shades darker, gaining slowly on my lovely friend Shanika :)

Okay, so they woke up, ticket is booked. I have to share the odd way in which booking a ticket works in Ghana though. I booked through KLM (Dutch), and requested an e-ticket, but they don't take your credit card over the net, you have 48 hours to go to the airport and pay for it. Originally we weren't sure if you needed to bring cash (no other options are indicated), which is a hell of a lot of cedis, if 1USD = 10,000 cedis... yeah you can imagine the mother of a bag I'd have to tote to the airport. Luckily though, Trish and Lindsay found out you can in fact pay by credit AT the airport... this is a relief. And think of all the free coffees I will get for using my VISA... okay, realistically maybe 3 if I redeem the points in London, now that is sad.

Tonight I am headed to the Baha'i Center for the feast. [Baha'is meet once every 19 days, on the beginning of the month (calendar is 19 days of 19 months with a few extra supposed to be devoted to charity, etc.) and have a meeting called a feast. Although there is food, it is more like a 'spiritual feast,' with an administrative, a devotional and a social portion.]

After that looks like another relaxed night, probably checking out Naureen's new place, which is hopefully now cockroach-free, and likely indulging in yams from across the street... definitely enjoyable!

The Canopy Walk at Kakum National Park, Cape Coast

These next few posts document a variety of things... in the wrong order, you'll have to bear with me as I grapple with the photo function. To start there is the night in the Kakum rainforest, then our trek to Cape Coast, and finally a few pics of where I live. Enjoy!

Our night in the Rainforest

This is actually the morning after, but it gives you a good idea of the small space we were working with. Above we strung two mosquito nets, and slept on that wood floor you see - NOT the most comfortable.

Sleeping like sardines, head to toe - note my colourful pink socks! Shanika (UK), Linsday (feet), Trish, and me. There are also two more people who were sleeping there, but you can't see them!

The canopy walk! AMAZING!

A few more pictures of the same... definitely a sight that makes you a bit camera happy.

The rainforest in the morning is amazing, even if we didn't see any monkeys.

Okay, this last one is for good measure, and it is very tempting to make up some story about how we saw this croc on our walk... unfortunately (?) that was not the case. We had lunch at this cottage with loads of crocodiles in the "moat" beneath the cottage... this was one of them. Apparently they are rather tame.

Cape Coast

Headed to Cape

View from inside our tro, getting ready to leave for Cape Coast

En route

Naureen (Toronto), and Lindsay (Toronto) in the tro; if you look closely you can see me and Trish (Toronto - do we see a trend?) waaay in the back. It was my brilliant idea to sit in the back, in retrospect, worst plan ever... there is about half the leg room back there.

Our view

A few more en route pics

At Cape Coast - this pic was taken from the "castle." Which was in essence a fort used to hold slaves before transporting them to the rest of the world (North America, Latin America, Middle East, etc.)

This is actually how it looks, it could be a painting though!

Again, from the castle

Another, equally beautiful. It is surreal how such beauty is juxtaposed to such a horrific past...

Finally a few visuals...

This is our street, our 'apartment compound [see next pic] is to the right.

Our 'apartment;' as you can see it is kind of disjointed. The door on the left leads to the kitchen, bathroom and Lindsay's room, and the next one along is my room. The don't connect though...

Fish, French, and Beyonce

So here we have a nice map of the various regions in Ghana. In case anyone was wondering a bit more about the country... I imagine that as I travel more (every second weekend, or so is the plan), I will actually be able to comment on these places you see. So far, we've just made it as far as Cape Coast. Although I am keen to check out Takoradi, which apparently has amazing beaches.

Last night I tried another Ghanaian meal... yeah, I do realize 90% of my commentary is about food, but if you are surprised by this, then you clearly don't know me at all. We ate at Blue Gate, this "chop bar"/restaurant very close to our place. Actually so close that we usually say to taxi drivers that we're going to Blue Gate. For some reason everyone knows this random restaurant. I have heard rave reviews about Talapia, or grilled fish, and apparently this is the place to eat it. It was rather expensive (140,000 cedis, or 14 USD for one fish), but we split three amongst about 13 people so it worked out alright. Generally I am opposed to eating fish that looks like fish. I mean full-on tail, eyes, fins, yeah... not a fan, but I figured, when in Ghana... You actually eat talapia with your hands (another interesting adventure), so once we got into the fish I got over the fact that it was looking at us. It was amazing! I am personally shocked that I tried it, but damn happy I did. It was very tasty, and came with veggies (shocks!) and avocado. There is something rather liberating about eating with your hands too... another thing I never thought I could do.

After dinner, we went to Alliance Francaise (Sabina I hope you're reading this)... not to learn French (although I actually am going to start taking lessons with a few of the girls - leave it to me to wait to be in Ghana to learn French), every Wednesday night there is a cultural event. Last night were some drummers and dancers from just north of Accra, from the Ga tribe. It was amazing! They were fantastic and so animated! It totally made me think of all the people I know who have taken West African drumming classes - guys you would have LOVED this. Anyway I think we may head over there quite often, because it was a great event. AF hosts a number of great events, concerts, etc. Most recently, the famous Malian musican, Habib Koite (my parents personal fave) played in concert for free! I am pretty sad I missed that, I bet he is fantastic live. Speaking of concerts though, I think we may go to one in October. Guess who is coming to Ghana... BEYONCE and JAY-Z. HILARIOUS. Tickets aren't too bad, about 60USD, but when else will I be able to say: "I saw Beyonce in GHANA?" Yeah, tickets are on sale at the grocery store, so I think a few of us may check it out.

Tonight is Thursday, so another shot at the quiz night at Champs. Last week was disgraceful, hence the lack of commentary on it the following day. Some of the categories included: Ghanaian football (riiiight), and Winston Churchill. Honestly now. Hopefully tonight will be more successful, although we'll have to wait and see.

Carb Fest 2006

Last night we decided to take it easy and get some food off the street and watch a movie. So, a bit on what we ate. Well, obviously its a no brainer that I got another papaya and pineapple... I know I should slow down, but as with everything, I'll overdo it, then never want to see another pineapple again... sigh, slightly OCD I think. We also got yams and potatoes smothered in pepper... mmm, good. A few of the girls got chicken with that too, rounding out the meal to a total of 11,000 cedis, or 1.10 US, insane no? And that was for four of us. We also bought plantain chips, which are probably the most addictive thing in the world, needless to say I ate a fair share during the movie. Essentially they are just like potato chips, just smaller and more delectable, or so I think. All in all it was a good night, just relaxed with good food and good company.

Today WANEP is holding a Symposium on the United Nations Security Council Reform at the Kofi Annan Centre. It should be pretty interesting, the panelists include people from the African Union and ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States). It is supposed to address how potential reform might impact Africa, etc. I'm heading over there after lunch to partake, definitely looking forward to it.

Photos are on my laptop... it is a slow process, but eventually (by the end of the week) they will make it on to the blog, I promise.

One of those days...

Yesterday was one of those days.

Not the kind where everything that possibly could go wrong does, but the kind that make you take a deep breath and really feel at peace with, well, everything.

It was a day that made me think: I really like Ghana.

I have always wanted to live in New York City, and eventually will someday... but many of my friends who do live there say they have a love/hate relationship with the city. There are weeks that go by which are amazing, and others that make them question why on earth they chose to live there.

I think the same goes for many places. Certainly here... I'd say I feel that.

Yesterday I arrived at work to find people sitting around eating in the dark. Of course, we had no power at home, so I didn't think it would be the same at the office. (I live in Osu, the office is pretty far away and usually they cut power by neighbourhood, rotating it through the city)

Obviously this left me with no choice but to head to the internet cafe back in Osu, because I had a bunch of research to get done. Three productive hours later, I had lunch with a few of the girls (power it seemed, was out in a few places). After a lovely relaxed lunch, we did a bit of browsing at fabrics, had a coffee, and I headed down Oxford street (the main street in Osu) just taking it all in. I haven't walked around much alone, even during the day, so it was rather liberating to wander about and not worry or be totally gunning to get to my destination.

On a side note, it isn't super dangerous here, but at night sketchy things do happen. I recently heard of two rather scary things, which I will not write about, because I do want my mom to live to a ripe old age... but let's just say being alone at night is, well, retarded. This is especially because in many places, side roads etc., there is just no light at all.

Additionally I bought a whole pineapple for 40 cents, and a papaya for 30. The lovely lady across the street has just met her best customer I think!

I'm getting a wack load of pictures tonight, so I will post about the weekend trip to Cape Coast WITH pictures tomorrow!

Rounding out the gruesome THREE...

Last night we found a rat.

Yep. A rat.

Interesting how it takes certain things (such as a rat) to put other things (such as spiders and cockroaches) in perspective eh?

Yes, I thought so too.

Perhaps I seem rather calm about this. Well the truth is, I am. Lindsay found it, not me. It ran from the kitchen into the bathroom, where it currently resides. In fact, we are fairly certain that everything currently resides in the bathroom... which is why we asked our landlady (Mami - perhaps the nicest woman on the planet) to help us fight the vermin off. She willingly obliged and as of later today (we hope) there will no longer be a massive hole underneath our tub.

In other news, we did a bit of planning for this weekend's adventure. Looks like there is a whole wack of us going (about 11 in total), so we should have enough people to fill up a tro-tro. Tro-tros are not quite buses, but not quite taxis... they have set routes around town, have a driver, and a man who hangs out (literally) calling out the destination. For example: "circle, circle, circle!!" It is a pretty awesome sight, but a cheap way to get around. I have to confess, I have yet to take a tro, but that is simply because you need to know what the routes are prior to getting on, because the likelihood of getting massively lost is pretty darn high if you just hope for the best. Seeing as it is only my third day coming into the office, I'll probably give it a few more days... Back to the point though, we'll fill a tro to go to Cape Coast. It will take around 4 or 5 hours to get there, shotgun motion sickness! Yeah, I need to get some Gravol asap... as fond memories of the sailing trip return... I'll give more info on its history after I get back, post some pics etc.

Tonight is of course Thursday, which means it is quiz night at Champ's. After recruiting a few more willing and able participants, we're pretty convinced we have a good shot at the gold tonight, ahaha I'll post about our results tomorrow.

My mouth is kind of on fire right now. But oh how I love it. For lunch we walked a few streets over to this stand called Two Sisters to get some watchey (wah-chee). Basically it consists of rice and beans, but you can get stew with it, or gari (grated cassava), oh and also a hot black pepper - seriously hot, hence the burning... I had mine sans stew, since there was no non-meat variety, but damn it is good! This is an excellent contrast to something I tried yesterday, which was... well, not worth mentioning. My new rule: if it has okra in it, just say no. Ugh, something that slimy should be illegal.

I suppose my lunch break is officially over now, so I'll sign off here.

Let's hope this is the first and last post about the resident vermin.

"What we really need is a long stick"

We had heard about them before we left Canada, but we finally met our first FLAT spider this evening. Of course, both Lindsay and I are completely petrified of spiders (cochroaches, etc. ), so we spent probably a good 20 minutes scrutinizing it's position (near the ceiling by the bathroom), trying to get a good angle to spray it (with this serious flea spray, to be adminstered by professionals only), and randomly screaming and running for the door. So, after a valiant attempt to knock it out of the sky with a flip flop (the ones that cost a dollar), by Lindsay... I was coaching, obviously, it fell onto a chair. We freaked out about it for another 10 minutes or so, which made us miss getting milk and more dried fruit, because the store closed, and finally employed the help of a passerby. He thought it was hilarious, and after smacking it (it was still alive), he picked it up by one of it's legs... this was less than amusing. Anyway I will add a visual tomorrow, just so you get the idea of what exactly we were facing... sadly I think I am no more brave now, and will definitely have a heart attack if I find one in my room.

In other news, I attended the WAPI (West African Peacebuilding Insitute)'s sessions today. This week's topics are: Youth and Peace Education. Right up my alley. It is amazing to bridge the gap though, and learn about what actually happens on the ground at the grassroots. So many of us write about this things in our academic lives, but coming into contact with the real experiences of individuals adds an invaluable dimension. I had a lot of fun today in my session with various group activities... everyone is incredibly nice to me, and I have been quite taken by how welcoming people are generally speaking.

Tomorrow I meet with my supervisor to discuss what I will be up to in the next six months... and then I will likely join the conference for the rest of the week.

The gym is proving to be the greatest thing ever... perfect way to unwind after work, and build up a crazy good appetite for dinner. Speaking of which, we went to an Indian restaurant last night that was amazing! Tucked into a side street, it was a wicked find. I think along with quiz night (Thursdays at Champ's, it will be a weekly event).

Oh, I forgot to mention, I did find the Baha'i Center. Hooray for that. My taxi driver was super helpful and told me what exactly to say next time I go... there is a great Center here in Accra, loads of space and very accessible. Though I am told many youth attend University of Ghana in Legon which I think is a bit of a ways away. Anyway I did meet a few people and will visit it quite frequently!

It's kind of late here now, so I'll sign off there... counting down the days until the weekend, when we take a trip to Cape Coast (Freelancers, are you jealous??)!

A bit about food or Why Laura got FAT in Ghana

As I sit here and write this post, I am surrounded by a delightful array of local food. An enormous helping of (yes, again) fried plantain. A bigger helping of red-red (black eyed peas mixed something greasy and very spicy!) which I think may have some fish in it - I think this trip will have at least a few, "and then I accidently ate [insert chicken/beef/pork/goat here]" stories, which my brothers LOVE, and claim are no accident at all... I also have a sashay, which is a 'bag' of water. How many of you are cringing at that, ahaha settle down, it is the easiest way to buy water, and the cheapest too. For about 30 cents you get half a litre, and it is pretty likely going to be cold too. I think the total cost of the meal was 3USD, which is pretty pricey for local food. But seeing as it is less than one week in, I opted for the restaurant over the side of the road vendor... but all in good time.

I may have already mentioned this, but in spite of coffee being a main export of the Ghanaian economy, it is rather hard to come by. That is, unless you hit a predominantly ex-pat/international venue. This is okay, but in order to try and make up for my lack of access, I have resorted to buying Nescafe. It's a sad story I tell you.... but it gets better because I don't have a mug. We also won't have a kettle until tomorrow, so I have been boiling water in the microwave, and then drinking Nescafe out of my bowl. Ahaha, to all of you who think I am a princess, how wrong you are!!

That's all for now, just trying to begin to think of ideas for work here.

Massive Contrast

Welcome to the weekend in Ghana, where sleeping in until 9:30, is officially amazing! I know most of you (including in particular those of you who know about my various alarm clock adventures) probably find this surprising, but I actually do wake up naturally at a reasonable time. It's something about the sun coming up at 6am everyday I guess. For a rather amusing visual you may wish to imagine me attempting to untangle myself from my mosquito net in order to answer my phone which is across the room... I am shocked I haven't totally killed myself yet.

So, on to the subject of this post. Last night we went out for sushi, yes you read correctly. It was actually pretty good, and in this place I can only describe as "shee-shee" which my McGill friends will understand. It was almost disconcerting though, to see that many internationals, and literally the odd Ghanaian... I guess what I discovered last night, was that you could come to Accra and never interact with any locals, how awful eh?

In contrast to that, a few of us decided to hit the market this morning. I think the runner's article whom I posted awhile back described it. It is beyond massive. I thought Hali's market was amazing, but you can literally buy ANYTHING you need there. I personally bought a pair of flip flops for 1 dollar. Definitely overpriced, the lady couldn't stop grinning at us... but hey, I think the whole money adjustment thing may take awhile. There were so many people in the streets it was a massive contrast to Osu (my neighbourhood), which until a few hours ago, I thought was jam packed. Clearly I was mistaken. Anyway, we were the ONLY foreigners, which was rather refreshing, and aside from random men grabbing our hands (still extremely annoying), it was a great time. I think you probably have to go there with a mission though, not to idly wander...

Tomorrow I am meeting some of the Baha'is here, there is a Baha'i Center not too far from where I live which is great. More on this later.

WAPI, WANEP, KAIPTC - do we like acronyms? YES we do!

Today is Day 2. Well technically it is day 3, but it is the second day I am at the Kofi Annan Centre, and I have met a few of the people who work with WANEP. The big conference that is a collaboration between WANEP and the KA Centre is called "WAPI" - or the West African Peacebuilding Institute. Next week there is a whole 5 days devoted to issues on Peace Education and Youth, pretty awesome eh? On Monday I'll meet with Oury, the program coordinator to basically learn about WANEP and probably start thinking about what I'll be doing for the next 6 months. Recently WANEP consolidated its organizational structure, so now it is strictly a coordinating network that oversees programming at the national level. So this means they are no longer in charge of any kind of implementation, instead that is done at the various country offices in Benin, Togo, Nigeria etc. I am pretty excited to begin on Monday reading loads of documents and basically getting up to speed on the organization.

Last night Lindsay and I went to Champ's again (this Sport's Bar), it is kind of a mix of locals and random internationals... a fun game is guessing why people are in Ghana, I think there must be quite a few diplomats kids kicking about for the summer. Anyway, there is hilarious quiz they have every Thursday. We came in 7th last night, pretty bad I know, but we plan on kicking some serious ass next week, especially since we realized there are actually cash prizes... haha just kidding, but it is really fun!

Today is Friday, and I guess now that I am no longer a student (oh that is weird...), I will actually look forward to this day! I think we'll be sticking around Accra this weekend, probably doing a bit of exploring, check out the big markets etc. Next weekend (after the other new intern arrives), a few of us might try to go to Cape Coast (I'll include pics when I start using my laptop).

What else? Well, I have to say congrats to all my Dal buddies who passed their defences!! Nice work folks... I wish I could have been there to lend some moral support, but I am sure everyone was amazing!! Also, I seriously wish I could be there to celebrate post-thesis tonight for Aimee's birthday! Happy birthday (old) lady!! Just kidding... ahaha hopefully there is another baby in the new batch of MAs.

Well that is probably good for just now. I am going to read the news and catch up on the world before I get assigned another task like transcribing a speech, boo... ahaha.

Safe and Sound

After spending an enjoyable day with my cousins and their adorable boys, Darius and Justin, I arrived in Ghana on Tuesday evening. I must admit, having two kids under the age of 5 to keep my mind off of the trip was pretty much perfect... couldn't have been less stressed leaving if I had tried!

We left from Toronto at about 6pm, arrived in Frankfurt (Munich is far nicer) at 7am, and left for Lagos, Nigeria at 10:30am. I have been warned numerous times about Nigeria, Lagos in particular, but we didn't have to leave the plane, it was just a one hour stop. Later on I found out that a few years ago a plane was hijacked when it stopped to refuel in Lagos - things better learned POST-travel! Anyway, we arrived in Accra (capital city), Ghana at 5pm. We were met by Charlie, who is a research associate (former intern) at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre. Lindsay, another Ploughshares intern - who I was travelling with/am living with, is an intern at the KAIPTC. As you may recall, I am interning at WANEP (West African Network for Peacebuilding) which is a local network which connects over 150 NGOs in the field of peacebuilding. Our organizations work together occassionally... currently WANEP staff are at the KA centre for an annual conference. This brings me to why I am currently here, writing this post at the KA centre. I start work next week, but did have the opportunity to meet a few of the higher-ups this morning during a break in the conference.

Alright now on to a bit of my experience so far. There is really so much, I am not entirely sure where to begin, so I'll just dive right in. Driving in from the airport was a bit overwhelming... culture shock is like travel jargon that makes no sense until you are actually IN a different country. And depsite previous travel experience, I am pretty sure you wipe your slate clean everytime you get back to North America. So, aside from a serious resemblence to Belize (probably Belize city especially, Fariba you'll have to confirm when you see pictures), I felt a bit like I was floating for the first 24 odd hours.

Where we live: previous interns with WANEP and KAIPTC, especially Ploughshares interns, have lived in this 'compound' which is run by a landlady who we call "Mammi" - yes like Mommy, and full of random internationals who work at various jobs and positions with an array of NGOs that operate throughout Accra. This is good because we have met lots of people who have given us very helpful tips, advice, etc. We live in an area called Osu, which someone referred to as the Soho of Accra. That makes me want to laugh a bit, but it IS a fantastic location, in close proximity to restaurants, a big grocery store, etc. You name it, they sell it on or near the street outside our place. Like I already mentioned to many of you, we had a fun incident with some huge cochroaches on our first night. Now my experience to date has provided limited exposure to these nasty creatures, I think the closest was the kitchen in Ukraine that was infested, but they were SMALLER and did not fly! Also in Bosnia, apparently there was one room in our house that was infested, but I think I saw a total of 2, neither of which was the size of these ones in our kitchen and bathroom... yikes. Anyway, we affectionately refer to them as our welcoming committee, but at the time, it was not super fun!

Yesterday we went exploring a bit, accompanied by another girl who lives in our compound. We got phones, a few groceries, had coffee (very hard to find here... sigh the irony), and salad. Yes, I know, despite the massive warnings against salad, it was my first meal... we'll see how I fare later I suppose. I have yet to try Ghanaian food, I mean real Ghanaian food, but perhaps tonight I will. I think there are actually a lot of similarities to Guyanese food (plantains, cassava etc.), so part of me thinks I may take quite a liking to it... who doesn't like fried plantains though seriously?

The money here is so inflated it is insane. I literally have a wad of bills which works out to less than 20 bucks... What else? Well there are so many internationals and ex-pats here it is bizzarre. I'm not gonna lie, I tend to stare at foreigners just like I get stared at, it's rather weird. Also, we went to this grocery store yesterday and I was overwhelmed with the amount of British stuff they carry... it was like being in Sainsbury's (best supermarket in the UK), well almost! I mean they carry Haribo AND Ribena... hilarious.

Anyway, don't get the wrong idea, I am going to not live entirely like an international... especially when my job starts, but at the same time, the small things (like getting a gym pass later today) make being thousands of miles away that much easier!

Please do email if you get a chance, and let me know if you want my cell number. Hope everyone is well and happy!